Students bring energy-boosting lollipops to market
When Adelin Lucaci first stepped foot on Liberty University’s campus as a freshman in 2018, he had no idea of the impact that the school and city would have on his business acumen.
Now, five years later with help from Liberty’s Center for Entrepreneurship and his brother, Brandon, who graduated with a psychology degree in May, Adelin has brought his invention of caffeine- and vitamin-infused lollipops under the brand “NOVU” to market.
Growing up as the sons of Romanian immigrants in San Francisco, the Lucaci brothers learned the importance of hard work from a young age while working for their father’s construction business. After high school, Adelin traveled across the country to pursue a criminal justice degree at Liberty, but later returned home to California to enlist in the National Guard. In 2020 and 2021, his unit was called into action to protect the state Capitol during nationwide protests in response to the death of George Floyd.
After his time in the guard, Adelin desired to start his own business. He struggled with several different ventures in California and eventually ended up working with his father. But plans shifted when a member of his church told him a dream he had about Adelin and described a house he had never seen before. Adelin immediately recognized it as a house his family had bought in Virginia for a rental property. Adelin took the dream as a sign that God was calling him back to Virginia, and he and Brandon moved to Lynchburg in January 2022.
Adelin (left) and Brandon Lucaci make their lollipops in a new facility they constructed for the business in nearby Forest, Va.
The first morning after making the move, Adelin woke up with the idea for NOVU. Harnessing his family’s roots in construction, he created a healthy lollipop that could appeal to laborers, giving them extra energy and essential vitamins they need throughout the day. Over the next year and a half, he worked on fine-tuning the product and building the company while taking business classes at Liberty. He supported his venture by working local construction jobs and invested in materials such as 3D printers and hundreds of ingredients for testing. In Spring 2023, he entered the product into Liberty’s annual Create Fest, a competition where students can pitch business ideas (similar to ABC’s “Shark Tank”) and have the chance to earn grant money. Adelin was named a finalist and won a $1,000 grant.
Under the tagline “Do Good Work,” NOVU lollipops come in either 40 mg or 80 mg of caffeine, and both options provide 100% of the daily recommended intake of vitamins B12 and D3 with a low sugar intake between 5 and 6 grams per pop. The product is ecofriendly, with a biodegradable wooden stick, and the packaging has been designed to discourage children from eating it.
Despite his success at Create Fest, Adelin said he still wrestled with whether it was God’s will for NOVU to become a reality. He spent a night on his knees asking God if he should continue.
“Out of nowhere, I got hit with this thought and this feeling of ‘Who do you think you are in asking me that?’” he said. “(God) didn’t even say yes or no. I guess I was asking pretty arrogantly, and God was telling me to have faith. So, I just did it. If you are ever struggling with what you should do, do something and God will guide you. Especially if God doesn’t specifically tell you to do something, do something and pray for guidance. Keep your eyes open and your ears open, and God will direct you.”
“If you are ever struggling with what you should do, do something and God will guide you. Especially if God doesn’t specifically tell you to do something, do something and pray for guidance. Keep your eyes open and your ears open, and God will direct you.”
– Adelin Lucaci
Adelin began searching for ways to further promote the brand. That’s when he attended Liberty’s annual CEO Summit in October and had a chance meeting with Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison. He briefly shared NOVU’s mission with Ellison, who invited the Lucacis to the Into the Blue: Product Pitch Event at Lowe’s tech hub in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 5, where participants petitioned to become suppliers.
Leading up to the event, the brothers worked hard to ensure that both the product and their sales pitch would resonate with executives. Despite all their preparation, they hit a snag just days before the competition when the samples they were making for the judges weren’t turning out as planned. They considered skipping church that morning to continue working but decided to trust God and left. When they returned and got back to work, the samples turned out perfectly.
“We learned to be faithful in the little (things),” Adelin said. “If I skipped church for this small problem now, I would have 100% skipped church for the big problems. It was like God said, ‘If you aren’t going to skip church and skip your time with Me for this problem right here, I know you won’t do that in the future.’ And I won’t.”
During the first round of interviews, the Lucacis fielded a variety of questions aimed at the company’s purpose and mission. They were also asked about their involvement in Liberty’s Create Fest and were commended for being named a finalist.
In the second round, the duo met with a high-ranking leader in the company for a condensed sales pitch. This meeting resulted in Lowe’s offering to take on NOVU as an official food vendor.
“It took me a year and nine months to realize that I couldn’t do it by myself, and out of nowhere it blew up. That was God who did that,” Adelin said.
He recently oversaw the construction of a special facility where they can manufacture the product and is networking with other companies to expand their sales. Both brothers credited Liberty with providing them with the resources to be successful in their respective fields.
“We’re super grateful for everything that Liberty has done, so we want to stay within the community,” Brandon said. “We love Convocation and Campus Community. We live off campus, but we still go to every one of them. Everything that Liberty offers is super valuable. A lot of times people take what they have here for granted because it’s so easily accessible, but we realize the incredible value that it has.”
The Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberty’s School of Business seeks to help students develop entrepreneurial skills, launch businesses based on biblical principles, and network and collaborate with like-minded business owners, mentors, and entrepreneurs from around the globe. The center offers free programs, services, and workshops to students in all fields of study. For more information, visit Liberty.edu/Business/Entrepreneurship or email C4E@liberty.edu.
